In motion pictures, whether for film (cinema), television, or streaming, de-aging is a visual effects technique used to make an actor or actress look younger, especially for flashback scenes. This is often accomplished via digitally editing the image or using computer-generated imagery (CGI) overlays or touch-ups. Some media will even create de-aged digital actors from scratch or with a mixture of stand-ins and CGI.
List of films
The following is a list of films, in chronological order of release, that employ de-aging techniques:
Based on a short story in which the protagonist ages backwards, actor Brad Pitt, who plays Benjamin Button, is initially shown as elderly and is gradually de-aged to look progressively younger as numerous decades of the character's life go by.[3][4][1]
In this superhero film, Patrick Stewart, who plays mutant Professor X, is de-aged for a brief cameo appearance, as the film takes place earlier in the timeline than the previous films of the series in which Stewart participated.[5] Though Danny Huston appears as Major William Stryker in the finished film, his X2 actor Brian Cox initially expressed interest to reprise the role by employing the same CGI program applied to Stewart and Ian McKellen in The Last Stand opening sequence.[6]
Bruce Willis plays an FBI agent who controls a look-alike humanoid robot de-aged to appear in his mid 30s. The effect supervised by visual effects artist Mark Stetson relied on makeup, lighting, and digital effects.[7]
A sequel to Tron (1982), set 28 years later, actor Jeff Bridges, who plays the protagonist Kevin Flynn in the original film, is de-aged to appear as Flynn's younger self in flashbacks and as the corrupt program CLU, a copy of Flynn himself, but decades younger.[1][8] Rather than using footage from the original Tron as visual reference, Bridges' likeness was recreated with archive footage from Against All Odds (1984).[9]Bruce Boxleitner, who plays the title character of Tron, also appears de-aged in flashbacks; his real world character of Alan Bradley, however, appears as the actor's natural age.
De-aging technology was used on Alan Rickman to portray 20-something Severus Snape at the time of the James' and Lilly Potter's deaths at Lord Voldemort's hands.
The film centred around a video game, where the characters, G.One and Ra.One takes physical form and enters the real world. Shah Rukh Khan plays a dual role in the film as Shekhar Subramaniam and G.One. Khan was de-aged for the part of G.One to make him look like a video game character.
Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum were digitally de-aged as their characters Morton Schmidt and Greg Jenko respectively for the film's opening sequence to depict their high school days.
Brad Dourif was de-aged with technology and a wig to make him resemble to how he looked back when he first played Charles Lee Ray / Chucky as a human in the opening sequence of Child's Play (1988).
A film about Robert De Niro (Billy "The Kid" McDonnen) and Sylvester Stallone (Henry "Razor" Sharp) as boxing rivals. In the beginning of the film, both actors are de-aged to show them fighting each other in their youth/prime. The rest of the film is set several decades later.
Michael Caine was digitally de-aged for a scene set in 1975 featuring his character Chester King. This scene was ultimately cut from the film and has never been publicly released.[10]
In this comedy film, actor Paul Reubens reprises his role as Pee-wee Herman 28 years after the previous Pee-wee film. De-aging was applied to Reubens to make him appear the same age as he was in his last appearance. During filming, Reubens wore powder and tape on his face.[1][4]
In this Indian film, Shah Rukh Khan stars in a double role as film star Aryan Khanna and obsessive fan Gaurav Chandna, who looks like Aryan but is around twenty years younger. Khan was de-aged for the part of Gaurav with a combination of visual effects and prosthetics.
Robert Downey Jr., who plays Tony Stark, is de-aged in a digital recreation of a pivotal moment from the character's youth. LolaVFX analyzed footage of Downey from Less than Zero (1987) as reference to achieve the youthful appearance Downey had around that period.[3]
Jennifer Connelly, who plays Dawn, is de-aged to look roughly 25 years younger. LolaVFX took inspiration from her appearance in The Rocketeer (1991), focusing on the volume of her facial features.[12]
Kurt Russell, who plays Ego, is de-aged in a flashback scene set on Earth in 1980.[11] Visual effects supervisor Trent Claus disclosed that director James Gunn desired to use Escape from New York (1981) as a visual reference for Russell's appearance in the film's flashback, but given how Russell's character wore an eyepatch in that film, the VFX crew could just use that film to take notes of how his skin folded and moved, ultimately choosing Russell's appearance in Used Cars (1980) as the base reference.[13]Laura Haddock, who previously played Meredith Quill in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), was also de-aged, albeit to a smaller degree, so she could portray a young Meredith.[14]
Samuel L. Jackson and Clark Gregg, who portray Nick Fury and Phil Coulson, are de-aged by 23 years for the entire film as it is set in 1995 (but filmed in 2018), whereas the previous films in which they had appeared in these roles had all been set in the present day. In Jackson's case, according to LolaVFX supervisor Trent Claus, they watched several of Jackson's films from the 1990s to determine which ones they would use as visual reference, ultimately mainly choosing One Eight Seven (1997) and bits of Loaded Weapon 1 (1993) and Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995).[17][18]
Skeet Ulrich reprises his role of Billy Loomis from the original Scream (1996), de-aged to appear as he did in 1996, in scenes featuring his daughter Sam Carpenter hallucinating with him due to him being her biological father.
Isabelle Fuhrman is de-aged from Fuhrman's age, 25 to 9 years old, around 13 years, to recapture Fuhrman's age in the first film Orphan (2009) for the prequel film. Fuhrman was de-aged with practical effects such a combination of forced perspective shots, camera angles and makeup.
Kirk Cameron and Rebecca Rogers, who play Jimmy and Susan Colton; the adoptive parents of the main character David Colton, were de-aged to make them look roughly 20 years younger to depict them at around the age that Jimmy and Susan would have been when they first adopted David in flashback scenes.[26]
In this Indian Hindi-language comedy-drama film starring Aamir Khan and directed byAdvait Chandan, Shah Rukh Khan appears in a cameo appearance, playing a teenage version of himself. He was de-aged to portray the teenage version.
Stephen Lang, Matt Gerald and Giovanni Ribisi are respectively de-aged to match their appearances as Miles Quaritch, Lyle Wainfleet and Parker Selfridge in Avatar (2009) for video recordings the Avatar Recombinants of the former two see that took place prior to the first film's climax. Sigourney Weaver is also de-aged to match her appearance as Dr. Grace Augustine from the original film in a dream sequence her Avatar's daughter Kiri experiences when connecting to Eywa.
Like in Scream (2022), Skeet Ulrich reprises his role of Billy Loomis from the original Scream (1996), de-aged to appear as he did in 1996, in scenes featuring his daughter Sam Carpenter hallucinating with him due to him being her biological father.
Joaquim de Almeida is de-aged to reprise his role as Hernan Reyes for flashback sequences taking place during the events of Fast Five (2011), for which Jason Momoa is de-aged as well due to the tenth film's retconning of his character Dante Reyes, Hernan's son, in the fifth film.
Harrison Ford is de-aged for the film's opening sequence, which consists of a World War IIflashback of Indiana Jones fighting Nazis set in 1944, for which Ford was de-aged back to how he looked during the release period of the first three Indiana Jones films in order to recapture the feeling that the footage was shot in the 1980s. To achieve this, Industrial Light & Magic trawled archive material of a younger Ford and matched it with freshly shot footage in addition to giving Ford the original jacket he used in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). Ford was "spooked" a bit with the result, but anyway impressed for its realism, yet affirmed that the technology didn't make him feel nostalgia for his youth.[27] Impressionist Anthony Ingruber served as the character's on-set body double before Ford's likeness and voice were inserted over him through CGI.[28]Mads Mikkelsen was also de-aged to portray his character Dr. Jürgen Voller younger, but through a different method.[29]
In this Hong Kong Chinese-language action film starring Jackie Chan and directed by Stanley Tong, He is de-aged for the film's opening sequence with younger version of his character in a flashback scene.
Lead actor Vijay portrays a dual role in the flim in which he plays one of the role as his own son using the de-aging technology across two phases with one as a teenager aging between 15-18 and another as the main antagonist aging between 22-25.
In this sequel to Tim Burton's original Beetlejuice (1988) film, Michael Keaton and Monica Bellucci are de-aged for the film's flashback about the history between their characters Betelgeuse and Delores back when they briefly married during the Black Plague.
Tom Hanks and Robin Wright are de-aged for director Robert Zemeckis's film adaptation of Richard McGuire's comic strip "Here" (2014): «The new technology that’s being deployed on “Here” is called Metaphysics Live. The tool creates high-resolution photorealistic face-swaps and de-aging effects on top of actors’ performances live and in real-time without the need for further compositing or VFX work».[30]
In this sequel to Ridley Scott's original Gladiator (2000) film, Connie Nielsen is de-aged as Lucilla for the film's flashback sequence that takes place during the first one's ending, with the likeness of a young Spencer Treat Clark (who was recast with Paul Mescal in the sequel) also being superimposed over that of Alfie Tempest as the former's character Lucius.
In this Star Trek short film, William Shatner is de-aged to reprise his role as James T. Kirk, along with Sam Witwer providing the physical performance as Kirk with Shatner's likeness superimposed, opposite a digital recreation of Leonard Nimoy as Spock, with the approval of Shatner and Susan Nimoy,
In the first season episode "The Stray", Anthony Hopkins was de-aged to appear as a younger Dr. Robert Ford in a flashback. Visual effects supervisor Jay Worth stated to figure out how they wanted Hopkins to look like with photography and references, for which they used all movies and photos the actor appeared in before his breakthrough role as Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Important Looking Pirates took a scan of Hopkins and produced a photorealistic CG version of the thespian that was placed on a stand-in's body.[31]
In the third season episode "Part 17", Sheryl Lee was digitally de-aged through a combination of lightning and CGI to appear as a youthful Laura Palmer when Agent Dale Cooper time travels back to the past to save her.
At the end of the second-season premiere, John de Lancie appears as Q did in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994) for a few moments, before the character uses his powers to instantly age his physical appearance (reflecting de Lancie's current age) to match Patrick Stewart's, who is playing an elderly Jean-Luc Picard. In addition, Patrick Stewart himself and Jonathan Frakes (playing William Riker) were de-aged for several flashback sequences set in the years between TNG's events and the series' present, shown throughout the third season.
For some flashbacks sequences in the series premiere "The Gales" and its second episode "The High Aldwin", Warwick Davis and Joanne Whalley are de-aged to match their appearances as Willow Ufgood and Queen Sorsha in Willow (1988).
In the episode "Violet: 24 Years Before the Heist", Giancarlo Esposito and Rufus Sewell are de-aged to appear as they did 24 years earlier from 2022, in 1998.[34][35]
In the opening scene of the episode "Tinker Tailor Older Spy", Ted Danson is de-aged to match his appearance in the 1980s and 1990s, based on his appearance in Cheers (1982-1993).[37]
For the fifth season of the show, de-aging is used to give the impression that the younger cast hasn't aged since the release of the fourth season, as filming on the fifth season delayed thanks to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike; producer Shawn Levy has stated that the de-aging used for the actors may involve make-up and costumes, but not the use of artificial intelligence.[38]
Virtual actors in motion pictures
In some cases, a young version of a character is not played by the original actor but by a virtual actor, even though the actor being represented is usually still alive. This is usually accomplished with some combination of CGI, a body double, and a voice double or archival audio. Examples of actors who were replaced by virtual actors to portray their younger selves include:
The likeness of a younger Schwarzenegger as the T-800 from The Terminator (1984) is virtually recreated,[39] with Roland Kickinger serving as the body double.
In the film's closing scene, Carrie Fisher's 1977 likeness as Princess Leia from Star Wars (1977) is digitally recreated, with Ingvild Deila serving as body double and archive audio of Fisher's voice (taken from outtakes of her hologram scene in Star Wars), being used.[41]
Sean Young's portrayal of Rachael from Blade Runner (1982) is recreated in the scene where a clone of the replicant is created by Niander Wallace and offered to Rick Deckard in an (ultimately rejected) exchange for information. Young's likeness was digitally superimposed onto Loren Peta, who studied Young's performance from the first film to recreate her voice and movements.[42]
Although all but Furlong appeared in the film as their current ages, virtual actors were used for their characters Terminator, Sarah Connor and John Connor in flashback scenes. Brett Azar, Maddy Curley and Jude Collie served as the three characters' body doubles, respectively.
A character named Rook had the same model as Ash from Alien (1979), with a torso based off a headscan Ian Holm had made for his role of Bilbo Baggins during production of The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2001-2003). An animatronic was created and actor Daniel Betts provided motion capture and voiceover (enhanced by artificial intelligence) for the character. Holm's likeness from Alien was later applied to the performance.[47]
In "Chapter 16: The Rescue", the sixteenth episode of The Mandalorian (2019–present), a young Mark Hamill's likeness as Luke Skywalker from the decade following Return of the Jedi (1983) is digitally recreated; Max Lloyd Jones served as body double, while Hamill's younger voice was recreated using speech synthesis through machine learning.
In "Chapter 6: From the Desert Comes a Stranger", the sixth episode of The Book of Boba Fett (2021–2022), Hamill's likeness as Skywalker is recreated again; Graham Hamilton was the on-set performer for the character. Skywalker was largely created through visual effects and synthesized speech based on reference images and recordings, respectively, of Hamill.
In the fourth season of Stranger Things (2016–present), a younger pre–Stranger ThingsMillie Bobby Brown as Eleven / Jane Hopper ("El") was digitally recreated, with Martie Blair serving as her body double. Blair stood-in for the 9-year-old version of Eleven, with her face digitally replaced with Brown's own in post-production.[48]
^Patrick Kevin Day (October 1, 2009). "Movie magic shaves years off sci-fi star". Los Angeles Times. digital-effects artists went in to the roughly 200 shots of Willis' surrogate and removed the creases of the actor's face frame by frame
^Keller, Joel (November 21, 2024). "Stream It Or Skip It: 'A Man On The Inside' On Netflix, Where Ted Danson Is A Widower Who Goes Undercover At A Retirement Community". Decider. Retrieved November 21, 2024. One of the reasons that [Ted] Danson is able to get audiences to buy in on this insane adventure Charles is going on isn't just due to his acting ability, which of course is substantial. It's fifty years of trust that he's built up with the viewing audience; the de-aged version of Danson that's shown in the opening wedding clip certainly doesn't look far off of the thirty-five year-old Danson we saw on the first season of Cheers 42 years ago.
